Ubisoft’s share of the DS software market has remained exactly the same, however – suggesting that the overall DS software market is in freefall.

“The DS is declining quickly,” boss Guillemot stated. “The casual business is changing rapidly and we have to reinvent it this year. We already have a big shift from DS to Wii this year and it will continue with the Wii and Xbox 360 new camera next year.

“What we are seeing in Europe, especially on the DS, is that the piracy is strong so we are working to put new figurines and new elements in the box that will change that for the future.

“But in the short-term it's affecting us. For example in Europe we have the same market share on DS as last year, so it's really the market which is declining. Retail, because of that, is less active on the format.”

Ubisoft’s executive dorector Alain Corre added: “We expect the Wii to account for 40 per cent of sales in our causal label versus last year when it was at 18 per cent, so it's a big change.”

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